Ailesbury M - 98 yr old Marquess dies of a fall

[Shinjinee Sen]

Michael Brudenell-Bruce, aged 98, fell out of his window while letting the cat out. He died on impact on a concrete patio and was discovered an hour later by his wife Teresa. 

Ailesbury's son, the Earl of Cardigan, was much in the news about a decade ago, notably a spat with his daughter singer Bo.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13418969/Relative-Prince-Harrys-model-ex-Florence-Brudenell-Bruce-falls-death-freak-accident-letting-cat-out.html

Shinjinee

[https:/www.maltagenealogy.com/LeighRayment/]

DM reports of a "wife" Teresa, was the late Marquis married a fourth time ?

[marquess]

A poorly written Daily Mail article, that seems to be more about Prince Harry's connexion with Bo, and that refers to the late marquis' window as Mrs. Standards have fallen and the Peerage has sadly lost its importance to the general public, hence all the errors. 

[bx...@yahoo.com]

DPB Online has yet to update this page, but in taking a look, here's what I found:

1. The late Marquess is shown as having been married "only" 3 times;

2. Presumably, he will be succeeded by his only son, the Earl of Cardigan (David Michael James, b. 1952)  The Earl has been married twice-- from his first wife, he has a son (see #3)  and a daughter (married with 2 children) and from his 2nd wife, he has a daughter.  (She is 31 years younger than her half brother.)

3.  The Earl of Cardigan has one son, Viscount Savernake (Thomas James, b. 1982), who will likely take his father's old courtesy title.  He is shown as unmarried.

4. The line of succession after the Earl and Viscount move up, then goes to a half brother of the late Marquess, Charles Adam (b. 1951).  He is shown as married, but childless.

5.  After Charles, the line of succession then radically shifts, to descendants of the 3rd Marquess.

Brooke

[dpth...@gmail.com]

Accidentally fell from a window? Was he a Putin opponent, then?

[bx...@yahoo.com]

marquess,

I couldn't agree with you more about the article.

Reading it, or even just looking at the photos, you would have thought it was the relative who had  dated Harry or even Harry himself who had died.  The man lived 98 years, only to die in a freak accident, and be the victim of a pathetic attempt at an obituary.  Surely, he deserved better than that.

Brooke

[BREMENMURRAY]

The article and other reports refer to his long term partner of 36 years. This means she was indeed a "Mrs". He held the distinction  of being the oldest Marquess since 2013 and was also distantly related to another member of the Bruce family the Earl of Elgin now 100 rears old

[Ivan Prekajski]

With his passing oldest baronet now (Sir) Henry STEPHENSON, 3rd Baronet: born 26 November 1926. However he is not on the official roll. 
Sir Dallas BERNARD, 2nd Baronet: born 14 December 1926 is oldest baronet on official roll. 

[dpth...@gmail.com]

"The article and other reports refer to his long term partner of 36 years. This means she was indeed a "Mrs""

Not necessarily. If you mean they were common-law spouses, there is more to it than that, at least according to the version which was applied formerly in the US, based on the British doctrine. They would have had to have held themselves out as being married during that period, not just live together.

[Richard R]

From the Telegraph of 16 May 2024: The Marquess of Ailesbury passed away suddenly on May 12th and will be greatly missed by his partner Teresa and family. He will be buried at a private family gathering on the Savernake Estate.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

DPB Online has now updated this page.

The former Earl of Cardigan has succeeded his late father in all of his peerages  and baronetcy.  He is now the 9th Marquess and 15th Baronet, among his other titles.

His son, the former Viscount Savernake, now takes his father's old title, the Earl of Cardigan.  He is shown as unmarried.

The next four  in line, after the Earl of Cardigan are as follows:

1. Lord Charles Adam, b. 1951, half uncle of the present Marquess.  Married, no children

2. Robert Edmund, b. 1956, descended from the 4th son of the 3rd Marquess.

3. William Robert, b. 2000, son of #2  Unmarried

4. Thomas Mervyn, b. 1956, twin brother of #2.  Married with daughters

Also, Mrs. Teresa Marshal de Paoli is listed as "Former Partner Living of Eighth Marquess."

Brooke

[Henry W]

It has been a rather unusual 3 year gap since the death of another high ranking peer (Duke / Marquess).  The previous death was of the Duke of Edinburgh on 9 April 2021.

I am not sure how unusual, but previous work suggests not for over 70 years - see https://groups.google.com/g/peerage-news/c/iO6CmhNVT14/m/iZ5JriJCAgAJ

[BREMENMURRAY]

The ninth Marquess is the first Marquess to inherit in this reign and was born in the first year of the last reign

[Richard R]

Obit in the Times of 22 June 2024:

E X T R A C T

The Marquess of Ailesbury obituary: much-married stockbroker

Descendant of Lord Cardigan of Light Brigade fame whose life was a tale of mixed fortunes

Like his mother, Michael Brudenell-Bruce, the 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, fell to his death from a high window.

Hers was on the seventh floor of the Savoy Hotel. His was at his home in Shepherds Bush, west London. The only witness to his fall was a cat.

It was the latest strange twist in a family saga that could be traced back to Lord Cardigan who, as he led the charge of the Light Brigade, declared: “Here goes the last of the Brudenells!”

As it happened, Cardigan beat the odds to survive the infamous “valley of death” debacle at Balaklava, but when he died in 1868, childless, so in effect did the single name. The earldom of Cardigan passed to his distant kinsman George Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Marquess of Ailesbury.

In 1961, Michael Brudenell-Bruce, the future 8th Marquess, might have taken the title. His grandfather the 6th Marquess having died, and the marquessate passing to his father, Chandos Sydney Cedric Brudenell-Bruce, he chose not to take Cardigan as a courtesy title, or the Bruce earldom of Whorlton in the County of York, keeping instead the junior style by which he had been known since birth: Viscount Savernake

It takes some following, but every earl and then marquess of Ailesbury since 1685 had held the hereditary wardenship of Savernake Forest, southeast of Marlborough in Wiltshire. Moreover, since William the Conqueror made Richard Estormit (later, Esturmy) warden in 1083, the succession of hereditary wardens had never been broken, passing from father to son, or occasionally from an heiress-daughter to son. The Esturmy family lived at nearby Wolf Hall, but in 1427 the line ended with three daughters, one of whom married an ancestor of the Ailesbury family, taking with her the wardenship of Savernake.

To Michael Brudenell-Bruce, the viscountcy of Savernake seemed preferable to the Cardigan earldom, especially after the publication in 1953 of Cecil Woodham Smith’s The Reason Why, which was critical of the commander of the Light Brigade.

Michael Sydney Cedric Brudenell-Bruce was born in 1926 at Tottenham House, the eldest son of the Earl of Cardigan and later 7th Marquess of Ailesbury, and Joan Houlton Salter. His mother, “while of unsound mind”, died when he was 11 after falling from the Savoy Hotel window.

…In 1950 Captain Brudenell-Bruce, now demobilised, became a stockbroker, and two years later married Edwina, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Ernest de Winton Wills, Scots Guards. The marriage was dissolved in 1961. He married, secondly, in 1963, Juliet Adrienne Kingsford, of Marlborough. That marriage was also dissolved, in 1974, the year in which he succeeded to the marquessate. In the same year he married, thirdly, Mrs Caroline Elizabeth Romilly. That marriage was also dissolved, in 1992.

Always a handsome man, Ailesbury was soon attached to Teresa Marshall de Paoli, a former model who had once dated Frank Sinatra…

…he had handed over the hunting horn, the token of wardenship of the [Savernake] forest, to his son and heir, David, who had assumed the style Lord Cardigan in 1974 on the death of his grandfather. The earl, as owner and warden of 4,500 acres, enjoyed mixed fortunes, however. The estate was held in a trust, controlled by the family. In 2013 Cardigan filed a lawsuit against the trustees, alleging mismanagement, but was defeated in the High Court, and the house was sold, together with 800 acres.

In November 2014 the 31st Hereditary Warden of Savernake, who had studied at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, was said to be living with his second wife and baby daughter in an unheated lodge in the grounds of Tottenham House on a £71-a-week jobseeker’s allowance while training to be a lorry driver. He would ultimately benefit from the sale, but was bitter about the loss, believing that he was “put on this earth to take care of Savernake and I will never let it go”.

…His son from his first marriage, the former Earl of Cardigan, who becomes the 9th Marquess, is contesting the will, which was changed two years ago to include Marshall de Paoli. He survives him, together with four daughters: of the first marriage, Lady Sylvia and Lady Carina; and of the second, Lady Louisa and Lady Kathryn.

The Brudenell-Bruce motto, Fuimus, colloquially translated as “We have endured”, had so often seemed apt.

Michael Brudenell-Bruce, 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, 30th Hereditary Warden of Savernake Forest, was born on March 31, 1926. He died after a fall on May 12, 2024, aged 98

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/the-marquess-of-ailesbury-obituary-much-married-stockbroker-rkqxtb2nm

[BREMENMURRAY]

Very late with this Obit but still better than the Telegraph with nothing at all